Yugo Mauser Restore with pics

E

ebell46

New member
Did this restore on my summer break from college. I think it came out pretty well, of course it couldnt look much worse than what I started with.Tell me what you think!
Stripped stock and refinished with an oil finish.
Stripped metal bare and Rust blued using brownells "classic rust blue"
Polished bolt.

Before:

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IMG]http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/aa408/ebell46/IMG_0091.jpg[/IMG]
 
you did a beautiful job refurbishing that Mauser. It looks new now. I have one just like it bent bolt handle and all its a good rifle.
 
:D great job,i love to do stuff like that ,,,,,,, very therapeutic also and the results are evidence of a job well done :D
 
Thanks for the positive feed back!

Rifleer-
rust blueing is an old process for adding color to metal often used on high end double barrel shotguns. Unlike hot blueing you do not need expensive tanks, solvents and chemicals, and unlike cold blueing it is more durable and gives a more consistent finish.
what you need is the rust blueing chemical (I used brownells "classic rust blue" http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=22820/Product/CLASSIC_RUST_BLUE)

a carding brush (I used brownells http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=24795/Product/HAND_CARDING_BRUSH)

and some sort of tank to boil the parts between applications of the rusting agent. (for that i took a length of house gutter and put two end caps with high temp epoxy) many people from what i have read used or made some sort of stainless steel tank.

The process is tedious but well worth the effort.
all parts that you want to blue need to be stripped of their finish, I used a wire wheel on a bench grinder, along with sandpaper up to 300 grit. the higher polish the parts have the glossier the parts will look when you are finished. However, the rust needs to grip the metal so too high a polish will not work as well.
After all parts have been cleaned of their original finish a thorough degreasing is required. When you think the parts are completely degreased, degrease them again, and again and again. Always wear gloves because not only are the chemicals used to degrease potentially dangerous (acetone, denatured alcohol) but the slightest bit of oil from your skin can ruin the finish.

When you are certain the parts are clean you can begin applying the rusting agent, follow the directions, which will include applying the agent, giving time to allow rust to happen (depending on climate this may take from 3 hours to 24 hours) boiling the parts which turns the red rust into black oxide, then carding the parts, cleaning off the black powder and repeating the process until you are satisfied with the darkness of the finish.

If you decide to try this and have any questions along the way feel free to pm me.
 
It was actually just water. between aplications of rusting agent you need to boil the parts to convert the red rust to black oxide and some of it comes off and turns the water red
 
ebell46 - Excellent work! I've got to try the rust bluing! Thanks for sharing this experience. Definitely learned some new things here. Do you know if parkerizing would work using a similar process? Just curious... I will do some homework, but would appreciate your advice if you know anything about this. Thanks - Jim
 
Jmiles:
Thanks!
I dont know anything about the parkerizing process, however after a quick look at the parkerizing Wikipedia page it looks like there might be a few hard to come by chemicals. I can tell you that contrary to brownells directions and some other forum posts claiming that if you mess the rust blueing process up early it is ruined, i found it to be rather forgiving. I can say that no matter what finish you end up using you can not spend enough time preping the metal.
If you have any questions about rust blueing feel free to pm me.
 
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